First look: Street Fighter IV

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The good old days...

If you’ve never played Street Fighter II then do yourself a favor: Open a new tab, go to eBay, and buy yourself a copy of the game right now. You’ll also need a SNES on which to play it if, for some ungodly reason, you do not already own one. Simply put, it was a defining moment in beat ‘em up history, and should be experienced by all.

Truthfully, I’ve never been a huge fan of the genre, largely due to the fact I find executing complex moves without getting my face ground into a squishy pulp far too much hard work for too little benefit. My one and only session on the latest Soul Calibur was testament indeed to my shocking lack of ability in this area. However, Street Fighter II has remained an exception to this rule as my usual button bashing approach tends to result in a decent move occurring at least a few times per round, and I have even been known to score consistent victories from time to time. This accessibility of play for newcomers, combined with its good level of challenge for serious players, has long been the reason for this game’s popularity.

Given my long-standing love for this legendary game, plus the fact that every subsequent installment of the series has somehow passed me by completely, I felt as though it was time to try out the latest edition–Street Fighter IV–and see if I could love it as I do its older sibling. The short answer? Yes. The long answer? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

It’s not often that I really gel with a new game so quickly (some might say I’m somewhat critical after reviewing video games for 10 years), particularly not one that is a member of one of my lesser favored genres. But those clever folk at Capcom have truly delivered the goods on this one, and as a result, I am falling in love all over again.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the combat mechanics and overall feel of the pain-inflicting experience remain exceedingly faithful to the 16-bit classic that we know and love. The graphics, whilst being updated to an exceptional standard, are similarly well translated for the modern age. I’ll be honest with you, this came as a pretty huge surprise to me given that modern interpretations of classics can so often be hugely disappointing. Capcom have really scored a victory on this one.

Ignoring the excruciatingly dire and utterly inappropriate intro theme, the music in this game is exactly what you’d expect from the spiritual successor to Street Fighter II. I did find a few vocal samples were repeated within seconds of each other occasionally, which is hardly a damning flaw, but something that really shouldn’t be happening in 2009. The few lines of code required to stop this from happening would be appreciated next time.

The only other beat ‘em up series that I’ve ever really connected with as much as Street Fighter was Tekken. That game was renowned for expanding its character list so greatly with each installment that I started to consider the process of choosing a character to be like some kind of pre-match mini game. Street Fighter has remained more reserved in this area and I feel that this is no detriment to the game.

I hold the classic collection of fighters in such high esteem, that I feel new characters to this classic franchise are to be treated with the utmost suspicion–guilty until proven otherwise. I must confess that I haven’t played the game enough to have unlocked all the characters. Those that I have accessed (and am not familiar with) range from totally sweet through to comically ridiculous, and all are capable fighters in the right hands.

{ad}Shockingly enough, I have almost no complaints with this game so far. The gameplay is solid, the graphics and sound are spot on (barring the aforementioned intro song), there are plenty of game modes to keep you playing either solo of with friends, and it gets the heart racing just as well as the legend from which it derives. In all honesty, this is a great game, and is now undoubtedly the favorite multiplayer game in my collection. Obviously, a game such as this had to be tested with friends, and we are all in agreement: classically-styled beat ‘em ups don’t get any better than this.